A bill to legalize bookmaking will not eliminate black market gaming and loansharking, the Commons justice committee said yesterday. Cabinet in 2016 rejected an identical bill on warnings that public regulators could not compete with private bookies: “Their motivation is making money and greed.”
The Commons transport committee yesterday by unanimous vote scheduled hearings on rail safety seven years after the fiery Lac-Mégantic wreck. A February 25 federal audit faulted the Department of Transport for gaps in rail inspections: “Communities are worried.”
A federal bank, Export Development Canada, approved more than $3 billion in loan guarantees and insurance on exports to China last year after claiming to enact a human rights policy, according to Access To Information records. “We truly do believe in responsible business,” Mairead Lavery, the $458,000-a year CEO of the Crown bank, earlier told the Commons finance committee: “We all have a role to play in defending human rights.”
We Charity co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger have until Friday to testify to the Commons ethics committee on conflicts of interest or face threatened arrest for defying Parliament. “I will sign the summons immediately,” Conservative MP Chris Warkentin (Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, Alta.), chair of the committee, said yesterday.
The Department of Finance yesterday declined comment on its appointment as feminist advisor an Alberta economist who published profane tweets about “men and their horseshit,” and ridiculed male legislators as juvenile and pathetic. “Deal with it,” tweeted Lindsay Tedds, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
“There is a small number of people dominated by men who don’t like how I communicate,” wrote Tedds. “Ironically the feeling is mutual. I’ve learned that with such people, women like me can’t win. I am confident, I am opinionated. I am me. Deal with it.”
The finance department did not respond when asked for comment on Professor Tedds’ public remarks. Tedds formerly worked as an analyst for the department.
Tedds wrote in a Twitter post last December 17: “Day. A university campus. A zoom meeting. Dude says something stupid. Me: calls dude out for stupid statement. Dude: ‘Well, that is your opinion.’ Me: who the f—k else’s opinion would it be? Seriously, (what the f—k). Is this dude for ‘I know you are but what am I?’”
Tedds on February 23 accused Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole of “frat boy behaviour,” and on February 17 described Ontario Premier Doug Ford as weak and pathetic. “It is interesting how weak men react to women who challenge them. Pathetic,” she wrote.
On January 30 Tedds tweeted an image of a coffee mug stating: “A wise woman once said, ‘F–k this shit’ and she lived happily ever after.”
A separate ungrammatical January 26 tweet stated: “The School of Public Policy that acknowledges that women exist and who may be tired of men and their horseshit to give a f—k?”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland appointed Tedds to an eighteen-member Task Force on Women and the Economy. “This group will harness the best ideas from a diverse group of experts from different sectors of the economy to advise the government on a feminist, intersectional action plan that addresses issues of gender equality in the wake of the pandemic,” Freeland said in a statement.
“Over the past year we have seen the alarming impact of this pandemic on women’s economic participation,” said Minister Freeland: “Canada’s future prosperity and competitiveness depend on the ability of women to participate equally and fully in our workforce.”
The Commons finance committee earlier heard testimony of conflicting data on claims women were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and economic downturn. “If you seasonally adjusted data the loss is fifty-fifty between men and women,” Philip Cross, a former federal statistician and senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, testified at a December 3 hearing. “If you use unadjusted data it is 85:15.”
“Men and women have different seasonal patterns to their employment,” testified Cross. “Men lose their jobs in winter because they tend to work more outdoors, so they recovered more over summer.”
By Staff 
Cabinet is committed to raising last year’s immigration levels 117 percent to the highest rate in Canadian history, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said yesterday. This year’s quota eclipses the previous record of 400,900 immigrants set in 1913: “Those who possess the skills and experience will accelerate our economic recovery.”
Parks Canada proposes to introduce Mandarin-language programs in celebration of “a great Canadian hero,” Maoist propaganda figure Dr. Norman Bethune. The agency said Bethune’s Ontario birthplace will become a shrine to the Communist surgeon: “The man is a giant!”
A Toronto MP expelled from the Liberal caucus for nepotism approved severance pay of $9,391 to her sister. The Commons yesterday ordered MP Yasmin Ratansi (Don Valley East, Ont.) to pay the money back: “The Board noted Ms. Ratansi’s lack of cooperation.”
A federal climate bureau spent more than $600 million last year, says an internal audit. Spending did not include $800,000 in annual staff time to manage newly-detailed carbon offset regulations: “Doing nothing is not an option.”
Xinhua News Agency, the propaganda arm of China’s Communist Party, is out of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery after 57 years. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not comment: “There is no perfect democracy, only democracy that fits best.”
The $675 million Public Health Agency “lacked everything” despite assuring legislators it was prepared for the pandemic, a Liberal-appointed lawmaker told the Senate national finance committee. “I was told twice, not just once but twice, you had enough resources on hand to deal with the pandemic,” said Senator Éric Forest (Que.): ‘There was a huge gap between the perception and the reality.’
The Public Health Agency in an internal memo worried about pandemic litter. Staff complained of the “environmental impact” of Canadians throwing away used masks, though the Agency itself landfilled millions prior to the outbreak of Covid-19: “With hindsight, would I have liked it to have been different?”
Canadians struggling with rolling lockdowns and foreign travel bans made 6,570,000 visits to national parks last summer, says Parks Canada. Staff at the Prime Minister’s Office feared Covid chaos as city people headed for the woods, according to internal emails: “Parks Canada is delighted.”
The UK enhances
the range of weapons
and radar capabilities
of its Typhoon fighter jets.
France improves
its ballistic missiles’ tracking system
and develops the European Patrol Corvette
– a new class of military ships.
The U.S. builds
nine Virginia-class attack submarines,
the most advanced
in its nuclear fleet.
Canada won’t be left behind.
In a bold move,
DND relocates thousands of employees
from downtown Ottawa
to its new headquarters,
15 kilometres away.
When the process is completed,
the former Nortel campus
will host no less than
9,446 workspaces.
Boosting national defence.
Next on the list:
resolve the shortage
of parking spots
the move created.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
We Charity’s Kielburger brothers face jail as hostile witnesses if they don’t testify on conflicts of interest in their dealings with cabinet, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. “There are precedents,” said Philippe Dufresne, the Commons law clerk: ‘Historically there has been authority to bring an individual into custody.’
